So here we are, down to the final six players and only one week away from finding out who will be crowned the champion of Survivor UK. This penultimate week of episodes has been great, with some really fun challenges, a lot of strategy, and, of course, a lobster cage blunder that will be remembered for years to come. So, let’s take a moment to reflect and wrap up on the events of a great weekend of Survivor UK.
Now, not much in life or Survivor is guaranteed, but one thing you can be pretty sure of is that whenever Leilani is on screen, she is going to entertain. What she may lack in strategic prowess, she absolutely makes up for with her unique approach to the world, and this has never been more evident than when she decides to lead a lovely tribute to recently eliminated player Laurence by burning his underwear in the middle of camp as a tribute to the Survivor Gods.
After this moving tribute, we hear from the rest of the players regarding how they feel about their place in the game. Nathan enlightens us all by saying, “You can’t really plan at this stage,” which is pretty on-brand for Nathan and his attitude towards the game. I find myself questioning what Nathan was hoping to get from his Survivor experience, if I’m honest. He seems like a great guy, but anytime there is an opportunity to engage with any aspect of the Survivor experience, he seems to shun it and sneer at anyone who actually wants to play.
He even stumbled upon gold in the last episode when he found the hidden immunity idol, yet in this episode, he reveals he decided to play it last night despite not needing to as he didn’t want to stay in the game if his campmates didn’t want him to be there. (Spoiler: You might just get what you wish for there, Nathan!)
Nathan does have some redeeming elements, though, as he is clearly pretty astute about people’s intentions. After seeing Matt and Christopher head off together, he calls out the likelihood that they are working together and that the two guys are probably planning on targeting Nathan at the next vote. He is completely correct about all of these things, so if he was willing to step into gamer mode a bit more, he could have had a good shot at making it to the end.
Meanwhile, at the water well, Chris and Matt acknowledge how there are three sets of pairs left in the game: Matt and Chris, Hannah and Pegleg, and Nathan and Leilani, and identify that these groups will be voting together at the next tribal.
Heading into the reward challenge, the players need to get down and mucky as they roll around in a mud pit, hoping to transport the most mud back to their bucket, with the winner getting to luxuriate at the Survivor spa. In the end, Christopher nabs the win, which means that he and two players of his choice will head off to the spa. Now, the last time that Chris headed off to a reward challenge, he was able to completely switch up the direction of the game. Never one to pass up the opportunity to take advantage of a moment, Chris decides to bring Pegleg and Hannah with him.
At the spa, the players indulge in a gorgeous fruit platter and a few glasses of prosecco. But it’s not only the drinks that are flowing, as within moments, Christopher starts spilling out plans and schemes regarding possible options moving forward. However, it looks like Chris might have some strong opposition, as Pegleg points out that it’s obvious Chris had an ulterior motive in his decision to bring Peg and Hannah to the reward. Peg and Hannah also point out Chris is actually somewhat of a threat. To be fair, we have now seen Chris pull off back-to-back challenge wins, amongst a few other wins to his name.
After the spa reward, all of the players reunite at camp. Matt checks in with Christopher to see how things went on the reward and also just wants to confirm that Chris’ decision to take Hannah and Peg was purely strategic. Although we have seen a major blunder from Matt this week, he consistently demonstrates he is learning more and more about how the game works, and it has been great to see him develop as a player under Chris’ mentorship.
Elsewhere, Hannah has a bone to pick with Nathan, and she has a conversation with him about his change in attitude after he found the immunity idol. The chat is pretty tame on the surface, but we can see that Hannah feels pretty disappointed in Nathan and that it has impacted her view on moving forward with him into the end game. But despite some heat on Nathan, he’s pretty chilled going into the immunity challenge and believes that the tribe will be voting out Chris.
At the immunity challenge, it looks like either Nathan or Chris will be taking the much-needed immunity win, but in the end, Pegleg comes through and pulls off a second immunity win. Despite not being the most amazing player in the game, he definitely has a pitch for why he may deserve some votes based on his challenge performance if he were to make it to the final tribal.
After the challenge, Nathan and Chris are still very much the targets, and both are vulnerable to the vote, meaning that it is most likely that Pegleg and Hannah will be the swing votes in deciding who will go home. Hannah reflects that Chris has made a lot of enemies and is not the most popular player with the jury. That, her beef with Nathan and the schmoozing from Chris at the spa reward means Hannah and Peg may be willing to make the switch and align with Matt and Chris for this vote.
Like Matt, Hannah is a player who has also seemed to open up in regards to playing a strategic game in the latter days of the series, which has been refreshing to see.
Going into tribal, the targets firmly remain on Chris and Nathan. Nathan could have locked in his place into the final five had he not essentially thrown his idol away at the previous tribal. Unfortunately, he has nothing to protect himself this time, and as the results come through, we see that Hannah and Pegleg did, in fact, switch up their votes and decide to take Nathan out of the game.
So there we have it; we are now down to the final five. Personally, at this point, I am really rooting for Chris to make it to the final three and pull off a win. He has shown great knowledge of the game and has never shied away from playing hard. This time next week, we will have our winner! Who do you want to see take home the title of Sole Survivor?
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